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The Pitco Foods industrial site in downtown San Jose at 567 Cinnabar St. at
the north end of North Montgomery Street about a block away from a vacant
lot at 551 W. Julian St. that Google development ally Trammell Crow has an
agreement to purchase from a San Jose government agency. The Pitco Foods
site and the vacant lot are one of numerous sites near Diridon Station and
the SAP Center that are being collected for a proposed Google transit
village consisting of 6 million to 8 million square feet of offices where
15,000 to 20,000 Google employees might work.
BANG Staff Photo / George Avalos

A vacant lot in downtown San Jose, located at 551 W. Julian St. next to
North Montgomery Street, one of numerous properties near Diridon Station
and the SAP Center that are being collected by Google and its development
ally Trammell Crow for a proposed Google transit village consisting of 6
million to 8 million square feet of offices where 15,000 to 20,000 Google
employees might work.
BANG Staff Photo / George Avalos

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A vacant lot in downtown San Jose, located at 551 W. Julian St. next to
North Montgomery Street, one of numerous properties near Diridon Station
and the SAP Center that are being collected by Google and its development
ally Trammell Crow for a proposed Google transit village consisting of 6
million to 8 million square feet of offices where 15,000 to 20,000 Google
employees might work.
BANG Staff Photo / George Avalos

A vacant lot in downtown San Jose, located at 551 W. Julian St., one of
numerous properties being collected by Google and its development ally near
Diridon Station and the SAP Center. Google development ally Trammell Crow
has struck a deal with a San Jose government agency to buy this vacant
property near the corner of West Julian and North Montgomery streets.
BANG Staff Photo / George Avalos

An office building at 440 W. Julian St. in downtown San Jose that sits atop
land that would be part of a proposed 5.5-acre tech campus. The site of a
future tech campus in downtown San Jose being built by by two veteran
realty developers has captured the interest of Google’s development ally, a possible hint that Google’s area’s of interest could expand in the urban
core of the Bay Area’s largest city.
George Avalos / BANG Staff Photo

A hotel is being proposed for a vacant lot in downtown San Jose, near the area where Google wants to build a transit-oriented village for 15,000 to
20,000 of the tech giant’s employees. The property is at the corner of
Stockton Avenue and West Julian Street, right next to the Amtrak and
Caltrain tracks that snake past the western edge of SAP Center and lead
into Diridon Station.
BANG Staff Photo / George Avalos

A hotel is being proposed for a vacant lot in downtown San Jose, near the
area where Google wants to build a transit-oriented village for 15,000 to
20,000 of the tech giant’s employees. The property is at the corner of
Stockton Avenue and West Julian Street, right next to the Amtrak and
Caltrain tracks that snake past the western edge of SAP Center and lead
into Diridon Station.
Photo Credit: BANG Staff Photo / George Avalos

A light rail train leaves Diridon Station on Wednesday, July 12, 2017, in San Jose, California, in an area that may soon be transformed if city leaders choose the site for a new Google campus. (Karl Mondon/Bay Area News Group)

Diridon Station stands quiet Wednesday afternoon, July 12, 2017, in San Jose, California, in an area that may soon be transformed if city leaders choose the site for a new Google campus. (Karl Mondon/Bay Area News Group)

Karl Mondon/Bay Area News Group

The mixed use area south east of Diridon Station is calm Wednesday afternoon, July 12, 2017, in San Jose, California, but it may soon be transformed if city leaders choose the site for a new Google campus. (Karl Mondon/Bay Area News Group)

Karl Mondon/Bay Area News Group

Diridon Station stands quiet Wednesday afternoon, July 12, 2017, in San Jose, California, in an area that may soon be transformed if city leaders choose the site for a new Google campus. (Karl Mondon/Bay Area News Group)

Commuters pass by the old Stephens Meat Products sign while leaving Diridon Station, Monday, July 10, 2017, in San Jose, California. The area is under consideration by city leaders as the site for a new Google campus. (Karl Mondon/Bay Area News Group)

George Avalos / Bay Area News Group

303 Almaden office building, sometimes known as the Ernst & Young Building, downtown San Jose. An office building in downtown San Jose has been bought by East Coast investors for more than $80 million, a record per-square-foot price that some observers say demonstrates the influence a proposed Google village is already having on the city's urban core.

George Avalos / Bay Area News Group

Properties along North Autumn Street in San Jose where developers TMG Partners and Valley Oak Partners intend to develop 1 million square feet of offices where potentially 5,000 people could work near Diridon Train Station, SAP Center and a proposed Google transit village.

BANG Staff photo / George Avalos

Industrial building near the corner of North Autumn Street and Howard Street in San Jose where developers TMG Partners and Valley Oak Partners intend to develop 1 million square feet of offices where potentially 5,000 people could work near Diridon Train Station, SAP Center and a proposed Google transit village. San Jose, 6-22-2017

George Avalos / Bay Area News Group

Industrial yards and businesses along North Autumn Street in San Jose where developers TMG Partners and Valley Oak Partners intend to develop 1 million square feet of offices where potentially 5,000 people could work near Diridon Train Station, SAP Center and a proposed Google transit village.

Patrick Tehan/Bay Area News Group

The Stephen's Meat Products parking lot in downtown San Jose, California, photographed Tuesday, June 6, 2017. Mayor Sam Liccardo announced that the City of San Jose has commenced discussions with Google on the potential development of a mixed-use, transit-oriented office space that would transform the Diridon Station area and downtown San Jose. (Patrick Tehan/Bay Area News Group)

Karl Mondon/Bay Area News Group

The SAP Center sits across from downtown San Jose, Calif., which rises to the east of Highway 87 in this aerial view taken Wednesday afternoon, Sept. 2, 2015, in San Jose, Calif. Diridon Station is in the lower right. (Karl Mondon/Bay Area News Group)

SAN JOSE — Construction of Google’s massive urban village in downtown San Jose is likely to begin about eight years from now, after BART and high-speed rail connections to Diridon Station are completed.

The time frame, outlined in a city memo, is the first public indication of how long it could be before construction starts on the tech giant’s expansion, which would bring up to 20,000 employees to downtown if the plan to reshape the core of San Jose moves forward.

Major construction and the “ultimate transformation” of the Diridon Station area is expected to occur from 2025-2027, according to the memo, written for San Jose’s City Council by Kim Walesh, San Jose’s director of economic development.

Meanwhile, Google’s development partner Trammell Crow continues to collect properties on the western edges of downtown, most recently with the Oct. 18 acquisition of a small parcel on West San Carlos Street near the train station.

Google and Trammell Crow-controlled affiliate TC Agoge are buying buildings and vacant parcels near Diridon Station and the SAP Center entertainment complex. They have already bought 20 parcels in the Diridon Station area, paying $146 million.

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The $1.2 million purchase of the property at 695 W. San Carlos St. — a lot between South Montgomery Street and Los Gatos Creek that contains a small structure — demonstrates Google’s ongoing interest in pursuing the transit-village project.

Walesh’s memo suggests that Google’s negotiations to buy 16 government-owned properties at the heart of the proposed campus have encountered some delays, given the complexity of having multiple parties at the bargaining table.

“We have always represented that the development of the Diridon Station area was a long-term play,” Walesh said Monday. “What you are seeing now is an understanding that the area near the train station that Google is most interested in is going to be the construction and lay-down area for the BART station and an area of use and activity for the high-speed rail line. It’s very complex, and all of this needs to be tightly coordinated.”

The property-sale negotiations involve Google, city officials and representatives of Santa Clara County. Of the 16 parcels, seven are owned by the city of San Jose and nine are owned by the government entity linked to San Jose’s now defunct redevelopment agency.

“The complexities of determining the sale price with multiple agency owners and appraisers” mean that the approval process for sale and development of the government properties is still in the early stages, the city memo states.

A property recently bought by TC Agoge, a Google development ally purchasing sites near Diridon train station. George Avalos / Bay Area News Group

The delays have pushed back two key elements of the city’s efforts.

First, the city’s plan to engage and involve interested community groups, which was scheduled to get underway on Oct. 20, has been pushed back to just before Christmas.

In addition, the projected time frame to complete negotiations with Google for key elements such as agreed-upon sales prices for the government-owned properties also has been pushed back 60 days — until the end of May or early June 2018.

Despite the changes, all signs still suggest Google’s project is moving ahead, said Bob Staedler, a veteran observer of South Bay development and of downtown San Jose’s progress.

“This is the future, and it’s the transit-oriented development that companies need to have, with the current traffic situation in the Bay Area,” said Staedler, principal executive with Silicon Valley Synergy, a realty and land-use planning consultancy. “This is a legacy project for the city of San Jose. It’s going to happen.”

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